1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to Internet infrastructures; and, more particularly, to search engines.
2. Related Art
A user, through direct and explicit knowledge, may know the addresses of only handful of web pages that provide relevant information. In the absence of such knowledge of the direct addresses of websites that would provide relevant information, the user typically resorts to search engines to find web pages related to business, commercial, scientific, shopping, other professional or home needs, and other uses. The user may use search engines for a wide variety of purposes such as shopping, seeking further information about professional needs (such as business and scientific needs), entertainment, downloading useful files, streaming video, etc.
However, search engines today have many shortcomings that limit the user's ability to search for information. One of these shortcomings is that when the user is in a foreign land where the spoken language(s) are different from what the user is familiar with, the search engines provide web page information in the local language and the user is not able to understand the information in these web pages. For example when an American visits Germany, and looks for hospital information for a health related issue, search engines may provide relevant information, but only in German language. Therefore, this information is unhelpful to the user.
In other circumstances, the search engines may provide web pages with some information in the native language of the user, but often the interpretations of these words are incorrect or out-of-date due to lack of real-time support. This confusion may also happen or be exacerbated if the search string provided has multiple meanings or translations in the local language. Some search engines provide translations of web pages, but these translations are not exact and do not provide clear information that correlates well to the information originally written in the original language. The user cannot search if he/she knows of no search terms in a local language in a new city and/or that infrastructure does not support translation and/or searching in the user's foreign language. For example, the user may be in a foreign land searching for panels for outside of a house (that is, exterior wall covering or exterior paneling) or local restaurants, or for local news. For a non-English speaker, the entire searching process becomes difficult if not impossible. Therefore, a need exists for a more internationally compatible and friendly Internet infrastructure that accommodates international and multi-language searching, content, translation, and processing.
These and other limitations and deficiencies associated with the related art may be more fully appreciated by those skilled in the art after comparing such related art with various aspects of the present invention as set forth herein with reference to the figures.